The Orpheus Files
by MissDevon
Summary: With rumors flying about other patients, Cara confronts her partner about whether or not he has more he hasn't revealed & is lying about. Surprisingly, David finds he can't lie to her and tells her the truth about Orpheus. Mentions aftermath of finale.


_**The Orpheus Files**_

David looked at Cara, who was watching him with such belief it almost broke his heart. He had never had someone believe in him as whole heartedly as she did before, and even with the question before him, he somehow knew that she would stand by him.  
_Was Dixie Martin right? Was there another patient hidden away somewhere? A woman who she had been with?_

Sighing, David looked down at his hand, the one that JR had destroyed with a bullet the night of Stuart Chandler's coming home party. Not only had he taken away his surgical career, but he had killed Marissa as well.  
On the other side, he still had his research and he had a new daughter with Cara.  
With her he also had a partnership, the downside of which was she wasn't about to put up with his usual bullshit the way most of the women in his life had, even Anna.

"David, I'm waiting for an answer, or do you want me to take _their_ word for it?  
To believe Tad?  
Dixie's dying declaration?  
Jesse and the others? To take Lorelei and walk away from you?" Cara asked him, her anger rising up. "I pushed away Grif for you. I stood by you and watched friends walk away from me, and now when it counts you can't be honest?  
I wanted to be a part of your research.  
Of Orpheus.  
I _believed _in you and what you could accomplish.  
Hell, to a certain extent, everyone did!"

"Because they wanted me to raise the dead, Cara!" David shot back. "They hoped that the next person to walk back into their lives would be someone else I had saved.  
You want me to answer you? Fine, but you might not like the answer you get.  
Yes, there were- are- others.  
No, Dixie wasn't with some woman from Pine Valley that I have hidden away somewhere.  
Babe is dead." David rattled off, at first with almost no feeling, but then, growing slightly angry as he turned to the topic he knew always came up with the research and work he had done: "Do you honestly think with how volatile that JR was and that he was going after my other daughter- that with how Krystal was handling things- that I wouldn't have brought her back here if I could?  
AJ needed his mother- his real one- not his aunt, because although Marissa tried she could never handle JR like Babe could, and I wanted my daughter back.  
And before you ask- yes, I tried to save her, but Cara, there are some people beyond saving, even when it comes to this.  
Some survive the treatment- but, honey they're not immortal.  
None of us are.  
And no matter what people say, I don't believe I'm God. I've seen my results. I've lost almost as many patients as I've saved- and some of the people I most wanted to save I lost.  
Nothing can bring them back, and nothing can bring me back from that!"

"I'm sorry David, but that's not enough. I…" Cara started sadly.

"You want more answers, I'll give them to you," he told her evenly. "I didn't start Orpheus- at least not in its former state, I revamped it. Gave it a new life. Made it so that severely injured and ill 'normal' people had a chance.  
People like Slater and Stuart…"

"Don't act like that was altruistic, David. I know Adam paid you a pretty penny afterwards, and Zach gave you money…" Cara reminded him.

"As an act to try to entrap me based on what Ryan and Greenlee were selling them. It didn't matter that I had saved Greenlee…"

"You used her afterwards."

"I loved her in my own way- just not like…" he stopped himself, not comfortable with admitting his emotions.

"Like Dixie, I know," Cara huffed, hating that she was second best to the woman with the two men she had managed to fall in love with, and then feeling guilty for thinking badly of the deceased woman.

"No!" David corrected. "What I felt for Dixie was obsession, that's the one thing that buffoon Martin got right.  
I loved Anna to a certain extent , but I never fully trusted her- especially after what she did when it came to Leora's health.  
Greenlee- well, I had given up on love. I thought mutual respect and caring and history was enough. But it wasn't," he explained.

"And where does that leave me- you know what I don't want to know.  
You're not getting off the topic that easy!" Cara told him angrily.

"It leaves you as the woman I do love.  
A happy surprise.  
I never thought that I would find love, Cara. " he continued as she rolled her eyes at him, standing a few feet away from her, because he knew that approaching her would only make things worse. "Only one night with you lead to more- a family and happiness and so many dreams come true," he told her, then sobered slightly: "only it never really will be because it will always be marred by that night and by the rumors.  
Both my daughters by Krystal are dead.  
I do have other people from Pine Valley hidden away- two at their own request."

"David!"

"I brought one back- it was Leo," he admitted, watching her eyes grow wide, he quickly added on an explaination: "Greenlee didn't dream her reunion in the lab."

"But why?"

"He wanted her to be happy," David laughed hollowly. "He decided to stay away and leave her with that fool Lavery!  
Thought that was what she wanted.  
Didn't matter that with him she could've had what she dreamed of.  
The family.  
The house.  
A child of her own…"

"Wait I thought…." Cara interrupted.

"Oh, that was what she told everyone to make her seem so victimized when Kendall was impregnated with the sperm they stole. No, she could've had a child as long as it wasn't Ryan's. Her body attacked his child as if it were a virus. There were treatments that Jack talked her out of and if she had stayed with Adian before those two made him as crazy as Annie or reunited with Leo… she could've had it all.  
Now… now she's in a wheelchair for good and blaming me because the 'miracle cure' wore off. Doesn't matter that she took a bullet to the back…" he shook his head. "Oh, and of course made scientist David couldn't save the good and pure Ryan."

"You were in a room being operated on and he was shot in the head. His death wasn't your fault. Grif and I used your research to save as many people as we could, including Greenlee," Cara reminded him as she crossed his office and took his damaged hand in his.

"Wasn't enough was it?  
Erica.  
Marissa.  
Ryan.  
Dixie.  
Brooke.  
Amanda.  
Colby still in a coma.  
Greenlee in a wheelchair."

"Caleb, Zach, Kendal, Bianca, Adam, Krystal, Tad, Jesse, Angie- we saved them based on your research."

"And Krystal's in a psych ward. Angie's blind again. Zach keeps pushing Kendall away. Tad is barely functional at times… think about it, how many times has Opal called you to save the day with Kathy and Jenny?"

Cara smiled: "I like helping with the girls. Zach was pushing Kendall away on and off for years- they're getting better; at least from my last talk with her. By the way she agreed to be godmother."

"Great."

"Angie knew the risks with her sight. Her losing it had nothing to do with you. Nothing to do with the virus. It was the shot to the side of her head.  
And I hate to say it, but sometimes I don't think Krystal was all together wrapped to begin with.  
And we saved more than we lost.  
_That's _the important thing," she reminded her partner. "Now, about these other patients. Who's the second one who chooses to stay away?"

"Ryan's ex- Gillian.  
She had been shot in the head- a gunman mistook her for Anna when she was asleep in the tower at- look, it was a miracle she survived. She was in a coma for years. Then with the medical problems- she didn't want to put Ryan and her family through the pain of the unknown.  
We honestly didn't know if she'd survive this long.  
But she's a fighter and she has.  
She one of my biggest success stories," he admitted with a smile. "She still goes to speech therapy and OT as well as PT. She loves life. She and Leo- they're good friends, I'm starting to think they might be becoming more."

"And you're ok with that?"

"Yeah. They both deserve happiness and they take care of each other and…"

Catching how fast he stopped himself and the look that came over his eyes, Cara knew instantly that what he had next to say was something he wanted to hide: "take care of who?"

"Forget it."

"DAVID…."

"Fine. I did save one of my other daughters…."

"Leora."

"And I don't want Anna to know."

"David, how could you keep a child from its mother?"

"Anna had no qualms about keeping her daughter, Robin, from her father for the first five years of her life and then she was going to take her with her while she was married to a mobster and enter the Witness Protection Program with her so her father could have no contact."

"Still…."

"You really think I should expose my daughter, who I don't even get to see myself on a regular basis, to a woman who is involved in international crime and who almost got her ex killed, was willing to kill our child via the medical decisions she made, and puts her own life, not to mention her adult child and grandchild's lives in danger on a daily basis?"

Cara rolled her eyes: "fine, then tell me about these other patients. Who are they? What can we do for them?"

"They're former law enforcement- at least those are who the original patients were. The others were severely hurt in accidents, victims of violent crimes, or were terminally ill. Treatments given by Orpheus saved many of them. They're from Landview, Salem, Genoa City, Port Charles, Bay City, and Springfield.  
I have offices in various locations."

"And the medical staff?"

"Most were involved before I came on.  
I wasn't lying, Cara, I inherited the project and I made it better.  
I found ways to save more lives and improve the quality of lives of the other patients."

"And their families?"

"Most don't have ones to go back to Cara, or they're the ones who reached out to me to…" he stopped, watching her pale. "What is it?"

"I was one of your patients, wasn't I?" she asked, then at his nod, cursed. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"Would it have made a difference?"

She sighed: "I don't know," she admitted. "What I do know is I want you to be honest with me, David. No more of these games. I'm your partner in life and Orpheus and I won't be treated as less, and as such I'm making an executive decision. Your brother might have made the decision not to reunite with Greenlee but you have other patients who have families who just might want to be with them and who they might want to be a part of again.  
Starting now we start preparing them for that transition.  
We don't keep them in labs as lab rats. "

"You might have a point.  
But what if they don't want to leave?"

"Then we make them part of our team."

"And if their family…"

"David, don't make excuses. Their families might have moved on, but they'll make adjustments on both sides. We might want to see about get a couple of psychiatrists on staff to help with the transitions for all of them.  
They might not all reunite in great love affairs, but those that don't at least will know they had the chance and tried."

"That makes sense."

"Oh, and David. At some point, Leora joins _our _family. I'm sure you had her name changed, didn't you?" Cara asked with a smirk.

David laughed: "you know me almost too well. Yes, I did. Its Leah now, but it's going to be hard…"

"The daughter of a patient that didn't survive. Like you said: you're not God. People aren't immortal."


End file.
